Heena imdiately closed and barred the door from the inside—a simple wooden bar that she’d never bothered to use before, but which suddenly seed very necessary.
She relit the oil lamp with shaking hands.
Now that the imdiate danger was over, the adrenaline started to fade, and she realized she was trembling slightly.
The System appeared imdiately, looking frantic.
"HOST! Are you alright?! I wanted to help but I couldn’t physically interact with him and—"
"I’m fine," Heena said, cutting him off. She sat down heavily on her sleeping mat, her mind already working through the implications and next steps.
"But this changes things. Maya isn’t just trying to marry off anymore. She’s actively trying to destroy . And that ans I’m running out of ti to implent my original plan."
She looked at the System seriously.
"We need to accelerate the tiline. I need to approach Samuel sooner than I planned. Because if I stay in this household much longer as just a servant, Maya is going to keep escalating her attacks until one of them succeeds."
The System nodded frantically. "What do you need to do, Host?"
Heena thought for a mont, then said: "First, I need you to monitor Maya’s movents. Find out if she ets with Driver Li tomorrow, if she pays him anything, if there’s any evidence of this conspiracy."
"Done! What else?"
"Second, I need detailed information on Samuel’s schedule and habits. When does he leave the house? Where does he go? When is he most likely to be alone and approachable?"
"I’ll get that information imdiately!"
Heena nodded, then looked down at her hands—they were still steady despite the earlier shaking.
’I’ve handled worse than this,’ she reminded herself. ’This is just another obstacle. Just another challenge to overco.’
’Maya made a mistake tonight. She showed her hand too obviously. Now I know exactly how far she’s willing to go.’
’And that ans I know how far I need to go to counter her.’
She lay down on her sleeping mat, but she didn’t remove the wooden bar from the door.
And she kept a heavy wooden stick—part of her firewood collection—within easy reach beside her mat.
Just in case Driver Li was stupid enough to try again.
Or in case Maya sent soone else.
Sleep ca slowly that night, and when it did, it was the light, alert sleep of soone expecting danger.
The System looked at Heena with a worried expression and asked hesitantly, "Host, is it really wise to let him go like this?"
Hearing that concern, Heena looked at him and said calmly, "Well, it is and it isn’t."
Hearing that ambiguous answer, the System was confused. "I don’t understand what you an by that, Host."
Hearing that, Heena tapped her finger thoughtfully on the small table nearby as she explained:
"If I hadn’t let him go, do you think I could have just kidnapped him and kept him prisoner here in my tiny servant’s room?"
Hearing that rhetorical question, the System tilted his head in confusion, trying to follow her logic.
Heena continued: "I literally wanted to kill him. Every instinct I have was screaming at to break his neck and be done with it. But if I had dared to actually do that, there would be people who would notice his disappearance imdiately."
She counted off on her fingers.
"The only way to successfully kill him would be to drag his body up to the mountain and dispose of it there. But right now, because it’s sumr, people are constantly going to the mountains to pick wild foods—berries, mushrooms, edible plants, herbs. There’s quite a large number of villagers going up there every single day."
She shook her head.
"There’s nowhere I could hide a body that wouldn’t be discovered within a day or two. Yes, I *can* kill him if necessary—I have the skills and the knowledge. But that only happens when I’m pushed to absolute extres. And right now, I don’t want to go that far if I can avoid it."
The System nodded slowly, beginning to understand.
Heena held up a second finger.
"Secondly, I think this female lead Maya is quite unhinged—completely irrational when it cos to protecting what she sees as ’hers.’ Sending Driver Li back alive is actually a warning to her: ’If you dare to try anything more against , I will not fall easily. I can and will fight back.’"
Hearing that explanation, the System was still confused about sothing. "But Host, didn’t you already show your hand? She’ll know through Driver Li that you can fight, that you’re dangerous, that you could potentially kill her if pushed. So what makes you think she’ll just let you go? Won’t she escalate even further?"
Hearing that valid concern, Heena looked at him and laughed out loud—a sharp, bitter sound.
"Let go? Hah! Even if I hadn’t fought back tonight, she would never have let go anyway. You need to understand how things work in this ti period and culture."
She leaned forward seriously.
"Reputation is such a trendously important thing here—especially for won. So tell , System: what do you think would have happened right now if I had been even slightly less alert, or if the original Seera was still in control of this body instead of ?"
Hearing that question, the System thought for a mont and said hesitantly, "Um... she would have fallen into Driver Li’s hands?"
Heena nodded grimly. "Exactly. And just like in any predictable drama, tomorrow morning Maya would have brought a bunch of won witnesses here to ’discover’ what happened. They would have found Seera ’compromised’ by Driver Li, her reputation completely destroyed."
She continued the scenario: "Then Seera would have been forced to marry that disgusting drunk to ’preserve what little honor remained.’ And if Driver Li had refused to marry her—claiming she wasn’t pure enough or wasn’t worth it—then Seera would have been branded as a promiscuous servant and drowned in a pig cage, or maybe tied to a stone and thrown into the river as punishnt for ’seducing’ a man."
Hearing that dark explanation, the System asked in a small voice, "Oh... is that really how it would have gone?"
Heena nodded seriously. "Maya is already committed to destroying . She’s already on a path to kill , one way or another. So do you honestly think she would let go just because I acted weak and submissive? Absolutely not."
She smiled coldly.
"So if we’re already enemies—if she’s already decided I need to be eliminated—then let’s show each other what real enemies can do. Let’s not pretend anymore."
Hearing that aggressive strategy, the System said worriedly, "But Host, aren’t you concerned that now that she knows what you’re capable of, she’ll do sothing even worse? Sothing more dangerous?"
Hearing that, Heena looked at him and smiled with dark amusent.
"What more could she possibly do? Think about it logically. She’s a girl who was married when she was maybe nine or ten years old—barely more than a child herself. She was married off to an old man, isolated in this household, with no real education in strategy or politics."
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